Circles of Central Kansas hosted its first community event, “Poverty Paradigm Experience,” on Thursday at the Heartland Community Church in Great Bend. The program was designed to help raise the understanding of what obstacles people who are experiencing poverty in Barton County face every day.“This event is very important to not just the people who are participating in the event, but the entire community,” Health Department Director Shelly Schneider said. “We have to raise awareness about the poverty we have in Barton County and that starts with building relationships with the people who are experiencing it and the goal of this event to do exactly that.”The Poverty Paradigm Experience is presented as a game where groups role play low-income families, with individuals taking roles of adults or children.